As days of Ikaruga fades, there are not that many bullet hell games available in the American video game market. Rockin’ Android is here to solve that problem. Rockin’ Android localizes many traditional bullet hell games put out by small companies in Japan. For some times, they have been releasing their games on PC’s only, but recently Rockin’ Android has released 3 of their more popular bullet hell game on the PlayStation Network.

Hitogata Happa

The most different of the three games released. This game is the traditional top down shooter, bullet hell game that the fans have come to love. This game, however, adds a few unique spin to the familiar genre. Instead of having a given amount of life, the players will have to buy their “dolls”, which is the equivalent of live in this game. What’s special about it is that each doll has their specific bullet pattern, bomb effect, and mana effect. The players are allow to decide which doll they want to use for each stage, and purchase them using the points they get from playing through each stage. There are a total of 8 different dolls to choose from, 7 of which are unlocked as soon as the players beat through prologue, and the last one will be made available after the game has been cleared for at lease once. Since each doll has it’s specialty, it is up to the players to figure out their own combination of dolls they are comfortable with, and that they are most familiar with.

This is probably the most challenging game in this entire collection. Aside from the fact that to use the bomb in the game, it would require the players to ram into enemies kamikaze style, costing them a precious life, and each of the bosses of the stage will only allow you 90 seconds to try to finish them off, otherwise they go into this ultimate mode, starts to shoot bullets out in true bullet hell fashion, and once the doll dies, it is instant game over.

This game will take up a lot of time to play and beat, and should be saved for last. Warming up to this genre of the games with the other two of this collection is probably the best thing to do, for the returning players and newcomers alike. Jumping straight into this game is recommended for long time bullet hell veterans only.

GundeadliGne

This is a very different game than that of Hitogata Happa. For starters, this game is left right oriented, instead of the top down. Also, this game is a lot easier to play, and has a some what confusing, but useful, life system. as far as the life system goes, each character gets a damage bar, which refills over time, and as long as that bar is filled up to the tick mark, the characters won’t get damaged, and will release the bomb when they take too much damage. Without it, the character will lose a heart each time they take a specific amount of damage.

This game is significantly easier to beat than the rest, due to the new health system, and the auto bomb when the character is taking too much damage. Also, this game introduced the ability to reverse the character’s orientation, so that the character can turn around and shoots enemies that are coming from behind. There are 2 characters available from the start, where the third character is unlocked after the game is cleared at lease once. Just like the other games, it will probably take a while to get used to this game’s play style, but afterward, beating this game will be a breeze.

This should be the first game to try out from the collection; it will ease the players into the genre, and give returning players a little chance to warm up before taking on the harder ones.

Gundemonium Recollection

This game is almost exactly the same as GundeadliGne with a few minor differences. First of all, he characters in this game can not turn around and shoot enemies coming from behind. Second, this game has a slightly different interface. Also, this game has a grand total of 6 characters to choose from, 5 from the beginning, and a 6^th one to be unlocked. There aren’t that many differences between this game and GundeadliGne, and considering they are direct sequels, it makes sense to have the similarities; where as Hitogata Happa is technically a prequel to the series.

This game is slightly harder to beat than GundeadliGne, but it is still a game where anyone can pick up and enjoy themselves with.

Overall this entire series is a great time killer, with all the possible trophies and secret characters to unlock, players will spend hours on these three games just for the unlockables. All three games have practice mode on top of the actual story mode, which gives players a chance to practice various stages before they have to try it out for real. There are also screen shot capability in the game, which makes it easy to share particular screen to other people, for whatever reason. The best capability of this game will be the option to save reply and have it be uploaded onto YouTube and share the video with friends. These games also support remote play, which means these games can also be played on the go from anywhere that has internet access.

The games can be bought separately for 5.99 each on PlayStation Network.  Gundemonium collection bundle is available for pc players from Rockin’ Android’s website, and it will include a 24 page art book and a complete sound track disk for just 19.99. Digital version of each of the games can also be found on places such as direct2drive and gamersgate. More games are already available for the computer, and it is aiming for an early next year release for the rest of the games on PlayStation Network.

**Written by Benson Chen